Greece built it. Rome took it. Everyone else wanted it.
Sicily is Italy with the volume turned up. Markets that smell of lemons and fish. Baroque piazzas nobody warned you about. A volcano you can actually walk on. Palermo’s streets feel like a film set that also happens to be a city. Most guests come on their own. Small group, good hotels, five days that cover more ground — and more creative territory — than seems reasonable.
WEATHER
21 – 29°C
DURATION
5 DAYS
DEPOSIT
FROM £349
GROUP
CURIOUS ADULTS
GROUP SIZE
MAX 10
DOWNTIME
LESS
HOTEL
BOUTIQUE
PHYSICALITY
ACTIVE
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After my first trip with Creative Escapes to Cuba in 2016, I became hooked and am now a regular Creative Escaper [Japan, India, Sicily]. They seek out the best locations away from the tourist hotspots so you can get under the skin of the destinations you are visiting. Media, London
Highlights.
Behind the Scenes.
Itinerary.
Flights land around midday, so there’s plenty of day left. We’ll meet you at the airport and head straight into the city. You’ll meet your guide and the group, and before anything else your guide will spend a few minutes with you one to one — phone or camera, it doesn’t matter — so that by the time you walk into your first experience, using it feels like second nature.
Then Palermo. Fontana Pretoria, the ancient bazaars of Vucciria, the Quattro Canti, Byzantine mosaics that have no business being as good as they are. A sunset passeggiata along the harbour. Later, an apero at a wine bar the tourists haven’t found yet, and a first look at the day’s images over a drink. Benvenuti a Sicilia.
Later, we’ll meet for an apero at a buzzy wine bar, stocked exclusively by locals-in-the-know, and review our best images of the day. Benvenuti a Sicilia!
Up early for a traditional gelato brioche, then into the Dickensian alleyways of Capo and Ballaro. Hawkers behind stands piled with blood oranges, olives, fennel, artichokes. Normal life played out against extraordinary architecture — remnants of the old city alongside vibrant street art, young creative energy, and food that’s unfussy and very good.
Here’s what changes when you travel with a camera. You stop walking past things. The old man at the same stall he’s stood at for forty years. The way the light falls through a gap in the buildings at ten in the morning and won’t be there at eleven. You start collecting the place rather than just passing through it. By the end of the day you have something most visitors don’t — not just photographs, but a version of Palermo that’s actually yours. This is the day it gets under your skin.
East first, to Cefalù — filming location for Cinema Paradiso and Indiana Jones, which tells you something about how it looks. Honey-hued stone buildings, a mosaic-adorned cathedral, a beach that belongs on a postcard. Then across the spine of Sicily to Rifugio Sapienza, base camp on the south side of Etna. A funicular to 2,450 metres, soft evening light over the crater, landscapes that look like another planet.
Early evening we arrive in Syracuse — an entire city listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site — and check into our boutique hotel on the tiny island of Ortigia.
Greek ruins rising out of citrus orchards. Cafe tables spilling onto baroque piazzas. Honey-hued streets leading down to the sea. Ortigia is compact enough to cover on foot and deep enough to spend a full day in — markets, a sixth-century temple, sun-soaked locals, artisans, and time for a swim if you want one.
The pace here is slower than Palermo. Which is the point. Slow is when you start to see the texture of a place — the way the same street looks completely different an hour later, the fisherman who’s been mending the same net all morning, the cat that owns the piazza and knows it. You’re not ticking off sights. You’re inside the day. That evening, dinner al fresco in the port. Fish from the boat, local wine, images shared over the table.
An early start for La Pescheria — Catania’s fish market, and one of the great street scenes in Italy. Swordfish heads on marble slabs. Ice that glitters. Vendors who’ve been doing this since before you were born. It begs to be shot in black and white, and we do exactly that.
Then up to Taormina for the final afternoon. Clifftop streets, Etna filling the sky behind you, the Teatro Greco with views that have been stopping people mid-sentence for centuries.
Before you head to the airport, your guide sits with you — just you — and goes through the week. What you went after, what you found, what surprised you. What you’re looking at is a record of five days spent actually inside Sicily — the market vendor who let you get close, the light on the crater, the backstreet in Palermo nobody else turned down. Evidence that you didn’t just pass through.
One last gelato before we head back down to Catania for the flight home. You’ll leave wishing you had one more day.
Dates & Prices.
06 – 10 May, 2026
01 – 05 October, 2026
5 days. 4 nights. Starts in Palermo and ends in Catania.
£1745 / £195 single supplement
Price includes
4 nights boutique accommodation at listed hotels (or similar)
5 full days with our UK-based pro photographer/guide
1-to-1 photography guidance throughout, at your pace
Transfers from suggested flights, plus all transportation around the island
Guided tours of Ortigia, Palermo, Cefalu & Taormina
Welcome aperos on the first night
Cable car to Etna
Price excludes flights & meals.
EasyJet, Ryanair and British Airways fly to Catania and Palermo direct from London, with prices starting at £45 each way. You fly into Palermo and out of Catania.
One important thing to know before you book flights: we confirm the trip once minimum numbers are reached. We will contact you as soon as that happens and suggest the best flight options at that point. Please do not book flights before we confirm. We know that feels like an extra step. It protects everyone.
Hotel Gutowski, Ortigia
On the waterfront in Ortigia, with views straight out over the Ionian sea. Listed in Hip Hotels. Exactly where you want to be.
Hotel Plaza Opéra, Palermo
A cool, classic designer hotel a short walk from everything. Palermo’s old city on your doorstep.
Absolutely outstanding. It was fun, it was interesting, had good food, and often good wine. I’ve already signed up for another trip, and will be signing up for more. If you want to become a better photographer, and have fun at the same time, then Creative Escapes is for you. Olive, London
Additional information
| Single Supplement - £195 | Yes, No |
|---|---|
| Date | 06-10 May 2026, 01 – 05 October 2026, 05 – 09 May 2027 |
